The programmed designer

Industry-standard tools – Apple computers, Adobe software – have created astonishing new possibilities for graphic designers. But is this liberation, or a new kind of imprisonment?

Muriel Cooper spent much of her career working at the forefront of computer-aided design as founder of the Visible Language Workshop at MIT, and was concerned throughout with ‘the significance of participatory and non-authoritarian communication forms’. In 1989, she concluded the essay ‘Computers and Design’ with a cautionary note, writing that the ‘changes that will be effected by computers and the information revolution are pervasive. Every aspect of every profession and every life will be changed by it. Little of that change to date has been in the hands of the design professions, the educators, or the citizenry. It is imperative that we […] educate ourselves and participate in the direction of this polymorphous medium.’

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Top: Tom Gauld / Heart.

John-Patrick Hartnett, designer and lecturer, London

Read the full version in Eye no. 94 vol. 24, 2017

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue. You can see what Eye 94 looks like at Eye before You Buy on Vimeo.